I am taking this on my own. I think this is my third time today speaking about scrambler bikes. I spoke initially with the Taoiseach today, I spoke with the Minister in committee and now I have the opportunity to raise it as a Topical Issue. The reason it is topical is because of the tragedy that occurred in Finglas two nights ago when a 16-year-old lost her life in a manner that was despicable and heart-wrenching. Yesterday, we all watched a mother, who had to place her grief and her devastation alongside courage that the whole country could only see as unimaginably brave, stand in front of her community - a part of Dublin that I do not represent but one that I know quite well - and find the strength in her voice to say that we, and she herself, would campaign to remove scrambler bikes from her community. It was awe-inspiring to see that level of courage. We are all devastated that she had to find this courage, given the grief that she had suffered only the day previously. The Minister has said in one of his last contributions that this should be seen as a line in the sand and I absolutely believe him. Regarding the enactment of section 35 of the Road Traffic Act, there was actually a lot of good in that in terms of the capacity of gardaí to intervene. We have seen the seizure of more than a few hundred scrambler bikes over the last number of years. However, I live in the city centre. Each morning and night, I will walk my dog through various parks around the area and without question you will hear the rev at some point that week of a scrambler bike. When you hear that rev, you will look around and see parents grabbling their children. If there is a football match going on, it will stop. I have been walking down the streets and you see scrambler bikes coming up through bike lanes. I have been walking home from the Dáil in the evenings and have seen them going up and down O'Connell Street. We have to take scrambler bikes out of our communities. We have to simply ban them from urban areas. I say urban areas because, obviously, they are the areas I understand well, but I am conscious this is an issue that impacts communities the length and breadth of the country. There is no justification for a person to be on a scrambler bike in an urban environment, or any road in a public area, yet they persist. The Garda has done a great job in terms of seizure and apprehension of the bikes, despite the fact that there is a grey area in terms of whether gardaí can pursue. I am conscious that the previous Commissioner said that gardaí had that power but it was left up to individual gardaí to make that decision. That was wrong. I understand that section 35A, which would mandate the prohibition of scrambler bikes, has yet to be brought into regulation. We discussed that today. However, we need to go further and go at the sale of these bikes. There is the idea that a scrambler should only be used in an environment where there is a club associated with it. If it has a role in some sort of rural vocation, that is fine, but we cannot have a scenario where you can go onto Snapchat and buy a scrambler bike second-hand. Gardaí have told me they are seizing these bikes and the same people they are seizing them off are getting more two or three days later. We absolutely need to ban these bikes. I will trust them because I saw the determination in the Minister's eyes and the Taoiseach's eyes today but we need to go further. We need to regulate the sale of them and make them much harder to purchase because there is no justification for what we see with our own eyes. There are kids on scrambler bikes. Let us be very clear: people are transporting drugs on them, the bikes are seized and they are back on a different scrambler like within a couple of days. I would like to understand the timeframe by which section 35A will actually come into force and maybe we can go beyond that and regulate their sale.

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I know it has always been an offence to drive scramblers dangerously in a public environment. I also know that in a public place, there is absolutely no safe way to drive a scrambler. That is what the difference is. There is no safe way to drive a scrambler in an urban environment. I trust the Minister on the enactment of regulation that will bring through the provision. I would like a sense of the timeframe from the Minister because we all watched Siobhán Lynch last night. The pain in that mother's voice is an absolute line in the sand moment for us. There is a mother and a family who are grieving but also committed to changing a situation that is impacting their whole community, their whole city and beyond. They deserve a sense of a timeframe for the regulations to be advanced. Will it be a month or two months? That is a justifiable ask. If the Minister cannot shed light on that today, maybe he could make a public statement on it by the end of the week. However, we have to go further. I understand legislation takes time but as the Minister said himself, there is cross-party agreement. There is nothing stopping us from getting emergency legislation through, if necessary. If a person seeks to buy a scrambler for sport, I absolutely understand that. There are still clubs. There is one up on the Alfie Byrne Road and I am sure there are others around the country. I am also conscious people need them on farms and in other rural environments. There is no reason why that cannot be linked to some form of an identification number from a registered supplier so that when you purchase them, there is a number allocated. That way, they are a restricted vehicle. All of us would agree with that. They do not belong in any public place. Let us ban them. I understand that is happening and we need a timeframe but let us go further and regulate them. These are the vehicle of choice for the transportation of drugs in my community and others. Let us get in front of that now and start the process.

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That is fair.

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